Carene Leanne L.

Bernardo
2013-200239

Environmental Law-2A
Ambassador Tolentino
Republic Act No. 6969

AN ACT TO CONTROL TOXIC SUBSTANCES AND HAZARDOUS AND NUCLEAR

WASTES, PROVIDING PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS THEREOF, AND FOR OTHER
PURPOSES
(Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1990)
Section 4. Objectives. - The Objectives of this Act are:
a) To keep an inventory of chemicals that are presently being imported, manufactured, or used; indicating,
among others, their existing and possible uses, test data, names of firms manufacturing or using them, and
such other information as may be considered relevant to the protection of health and the environment;
b) To monitor and regulate the importation, manufacture, processing, handling, storage, transportation,
sale, distribution, use and disposal of chemical substances and mixtures that present unreasonable risk or
injury to health or to the environment in accordance with national policies and international
commitments;
c) To inform and educate the populace regarding the hazards and risks attendant to the manufacture,
handling, storage, transportation, processing, distribution, use and disposal of toxic chemicals and other
substances and mixtures; and
d) To prevent the entry, even in transit, as well as the keeping or storage and disposal of hazardous and
nuclear wastes into the country for whatever purpose.
Section 5. Definition. - As used in this Act:
*a) Chemical substance means any organic or inorganic substance of a particular molecular identity,
including:
i) Any combination of such substances occurring in whole or in part as a result of chemical reaction or
occurring in nature: and
ii) Any element or uncombined chemical.
*b) Chemical mixture means any combination of two or more chemical substances if the combination
does not occur in nature and is not, in whole or in part, the result of a chemical reaction, if none of the
chemical substances comprising the combination is a new chemical substance and if the combination
could have been manufactured for commercial purposes without a chemical reaction at the time the
chemical substances comprising the combination were combined. This shall include non-biodegradable
mixtures.
c) Process means the preparation of a chemical substance or mixture after its manufacture for commercial
distribution:
i) In the same form or physical state or in a different form or physical state from that which it was
received by the person so preparing such substance or mixture; or
ii) As part of an article containing a chemical substance or mixture.
*d) Importation means the entry of a product or substance into the Philippines (through the seaports or
airports of entry) after having been properly cleared through or still remaining under customs control, the

product or substance of which is intended for direct consumption, merchandising, warehousing, for
further processing.
e) Manufacture means the mechanical or chemical transformation of substances into new products
whether work is performed by power-driven machines or by hand, whether it is done in a factory or in the
worker's home, and whether the products are sold at wholesale or retail.
f) Hazardous substances are substances which present either:
1) short-term acute hazards such as acute toxicity by ingestion, inhalation or skin absorption,
corrosivity or other skin or eye contact hazard or the risk of fire or explosion; or
2) long-term environmental hazards, including chronic toxicity upon repeated exposure,
carcinogenicity (which may in some cases result from acute exposure but with a long latent
period, resistance to detoxification process such as biodegradation, the potential to pollute
underground or surface waters, or aesthetically objectionable properties such as offensive odors.
*g) Hazardous wastes are hereby defined as substances that are without any safe commercial, industrial,
agricultural or economic usage and are shipped, transported or brought from the country of origin for
dumping or disposal into or in transit through any part of the territory of the Philippines. Hazardous
wastes shall also refer to by-products, side-products, process residues, spent reaction media, contaminated
plant or equipment or other substances from manufacturing operations, and as consumer discards of
manufactured products.
*h) Nuclear wastes are hazardous wastes made radioactive by exposure to the radiation incidental to the
production or utilization of nuclear fuels but does not include nuclear fuel, or radioisotopes which have
reached the final stage of fabrication so as to be usable for any scientific, medical, agricultural,
commercial, or industrial purpose.